Camille Claudel ~ L'âge mûr /L'Età matura, 1902

The Age of Maturity/L'âge mûr is probably the work that most lends itself to an interpretation based on autobiographical narrative: the end of the relationship between Claudel and Rodin.
In actual fact, the association of the three figures with Camille Claudel, Auguste Rodin and Rose Beuret arose some time after the sculpture was first exhibited. The critics initially saw it as the “symbolic representation of Destiny, in which the ageing man is torn away from love, youth and life”.

The work was a turning-point in Claudel’s career, a key moment, when she attained the full mastery of her powers, when she began to be recognized by the establishment, but when she realized she would never reach the heights that she could justifiably hope for.

Camille Claudel - L'âge mur, First version

Camille Claudel - L'âge mur, First version

- In the first version, the man stands in the centre, torn between two women, one old, the other young.

Camille Claudel - L'âge mur, First version

- The second version, full of powerful movement, intensifies the drama: this time the man turns his back on the imploring figure of the young woman, having letting go of her hand, and is led away by an old woman who also depicts Time.
In November 1898, the French state envisaged commissioning a bronze cast of The Age of Maturity from Camille Claudel. In June 1899, the plaster version was shown at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (founded in 1890, independent of the ministry; Rodin was president of the admission jury and the sculpture section at this time), but the bronze cast was not commissioned. The work was again refused at the 1900 Universal Exposition – the one that would see Rodin’s success in the Pavillon de l’Alma. Rodin has sometimes been accused of playing a role in the rejection of a work open to an interpretation that involved him personally. However, he never sought to prevent The Age of Maturity from being exhibited. But Claudel, convinced that Rodin was the cause of her problems, left the SNBA in 1900. | The Musée Rodin